A stockbroker who hanged himself while under suspicion of killing his ex-girlfriend called her a ‘piece of s**t’ and confessed ‘most of the stuff you will hear is true’ in his suicide notes.
John Ozbilgen, 29, killed himself less than a month after Stephanie Parze, 25, went missing on October 30. Her body was discovered by two teenagers in the woods in Old Bridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, on January 27.
In two suicide notes made public by Monmouth Prosecutor’s Office on Monday after fragments were revealed last month, Ozbilgen addresses ‘Mom, Dad, Sal, Sammy’ and another is to an unnamed ex-girlfriend.
‘Sorry about all this crazyness, I’ve been miserable for so long now, I had enough … I can’t do life in prison,’ Ozbilgen writes to his parents. ‘I dug myself in a deep hole. This is the only choice.’
Ozbilgen hanged himself in his parent’s garage on November 22, two days after he was released by officers on an unrelated child pornography charge.
In the note to his family he continues, ‘most of the stuff you will hear is true exept (sic) the child porn, I would never do that.’
Neither of the notes mentions Parze by name but in the note to an ex-girlfriend he references ‘the girl in the news,’ referring to her as a ‘piece of s***.’
John Ozbilgen, 29, (left) killed himself less than a month after Stephanie Parze, 25, (right) went missing on October 30. Her body was discovered by two teenagers in the woods in Old Bridge, Middlesex, New Jersey, on January 27.
In one of two suicide notes made public by Monmouth Prosecutor’s Office on Monday, Ozbilgen addresses ‘Mom, Dad, Sal, Sammy’
The other note is addressed to an ex-girlfriend. Ozbilgen had a history of violence towards women, prosecutors said. In the last three years three had made domestic violence reports against him
Ozbilgen had a history of violence towards women, prosecutors said. In the last three years three had made domestic violence reports against him, one of those was Parze in September 23.
Another was an ex-girlfriend who told the Asbury Park Press that Ozbilgen had choked her unconscious more than once during sex and arguments. She later dropped the charges because she was unable to attend court.
In a note to one of his ex-girlfriends he tells her: ‘I love you so much little lady … I don’t know what I was thinking when I (messed) our relationship up. … Recently I tried to reach out to you, you got a restraining order? Why? At that moment I felt like my entire world ended.’
He continues: ‘I really needed you in a huge way. Look at the mess I created. LOL.’
Parze’s badly decomposed remains were found in an area that had previously been scoured by volunteers after her disappearance. A ruling on the cause and manner of her death has not yet been made.
Monmouth County Prosecutor, Christopher Gramiccioni, has previously said: ‘No one else is responsible for her death. That responsibility belongs to John Ozbilgen, and John Ozbilgen alone.’
Ozbilgen’s parents, Hakan and Cynthia Ozbilgen, have claimed their son is innocent. ‘We don’t truly know what happened to Stephanie, but what we do know is John never said that he hurt Stephanie to us or in the note that he left.’ They said in a statement.
‘We believe he is innocent, but all the pressure from the false child pornography charges and the constant searches and relentlessness caused him to take his own life.’
Ozbilgen hung himself in his parent’s garage on November 22, two days after he was released by officers on an unrelated child pornography charge
Mother Sharlene Parze (left) frantically called 911 after Stephanie (right) did not respond to her texts and the 25-year-old did not respond during checkups at her home
Parze was last seen around 10pm on October 30 after spending a girls’ night out with her mother, Sharlene Parze, and her sister to see medium Cindy Kaza’s show at the Stress Factory in New Brunswick.
Parze drove to her late grandmother’s house, where she was staying, after the psychic show.
New Jersey authorities discovered the body of Stephanie Parze (pictured) in a wooded area in Middlesex County on Sunday
A Snapchat video shared by Parze showing the drive home was the last thing she shared that evening.
The next morning, Parze failed to show up to a 9am babysitting job she was scheduled for, prompting her parents and sisters to contact local authorities.
During the frantic 911 call, Sharlene revealed that she already contacted Parze’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Ozbilgen, in an attempt to locate her daughter.
‘[Ozbilgen] said that he saw her last night, he stayed there and he was getting ready for work this morning and has not heard from her since all day,’ Sharlene can be heard telling the dispatcher in audio obtained by NJ.com.
More than a week later, Ozbilgen would become a ‘person of interest’ in Parze’s case.
Sharlene became concerned for her daughter after she stopped responding to texts and although she had stopped by the house twice to check in, Parze was no where to be found.
The body was recovered at 2.46pm and formally identified after an autopsy was performed (pictured: police cars at the scene last month)
Stephanie (pictured) of Middlesex, New Jersey, was last seen after spending a girls’ night out with her mother and sister at Stress Factory
Edward Parze and Sharlene Parze (both right) revealed the family was ‘devastated’ by the news of Stephanie’s death at a press conference last month
The home’s lights had been left on. There was no signs of forced entry and her dog had been left inside alone. Parze’s white Hyundai Sonata was still in the driveway.
In an odd twist, Sharlene found Parze’s cell phone stuffed down the side of the couch with text messages indicating she’d missed her job that morning.
‘I’ve been calling and texting her all day,’ a frantic Sharlene is heard saying during the call. ‘I’ve reached out to almost every friend that she has.’
‘No one has heard from her,’ Sharlene tells the operator. ‘She started going on the dating page on Facebook and was talking to a couple guys, so I don’t know whether … but she’d never meet someone in the morning.’
During the eight-minute phone call, Sharlene casts suspicion onto Ozbilgen, who claimed he saw her the morning she vanished.
‘Who’s to say he really slept over and saw her this morning? I don’t know,’ Sharlene is heard saying.
At the time, Ozbilgen was already under investigation by authorities after Parze filed a domestic violence complaint against him in September.
She accused the stockbroker of striking her hand and back-handing her across the head.
According to Parze’s Facebook profile, she was in a relationship with Ozbilgen from August 19 but at the time of her vanishing she was single.
While investigating Parze’s disappearance, detectives noticed marks around Ozbilgen’s neck and began to consider him a ‘person of interest.’
Parze accused the stockbroker of striking her hand and back-handing her across the head.
Subsequently, authorities visited his home on five separate occasions during the investigation.
In November, Ozbilgen was arrested for child pornography charges after authorities searched his computer and phone as part of the investigation. He reportedly had nine images of children as young as three being sexually abused.
It was also discovered that Ozbilgen sent Parze ten profanity-laden texts and Facebook messages the night before she went missing.
He told her that ‘she always has to make their relationship suck’ and called her a ‘f***ing c**t,’ Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Caitlin Sidley said earlier.
‘Ozbilgen’s violence against women is borne out in his history, as well as pornography he seeks out of very young children. There are no conditions that can keep this community safe,’ Sidley added.